For around five years, only Apple's iPhone was even considered as the best smartphone money could buy. That is beginning to change, with competition from other manufacturers making headway in the battle for supremacy. 2012 may be seen as the turning point with CNET voting the Samsung Galaxy S III (S3) the Best Tech Product of 2012.

What's changed? How has Samsung managed to knock iPhone, and the iPhone 5 at that, Apple's latest and most inventive yet, off the mantle set aside for it: the best smartphone?

There are a few reasons. Firstly, Samsung took the bold step of working itself hard to ensure the S3 was realised well before iPhone 5, giving it a head start in marketing and sales. A phone needs to be popular to win any voting contests of course, and with the long gap between iPhone 4S and iPhone 5, many picked up the Galaxy S3. Samsung also ensured it aped all other phones in terms of features, convincing even more people to pick up a Samsung Galaxy S3.

The list of innovative and useful features on the S3 is large, and iPhone 5 doesn't always have an answer. The S3's S-Voice feature is a voice search much like Siri for iPhone, both are useful, but it's probably Siri that is the more advanced. Then the Galaxy S3 swings into action. The Pop up Play feature lets you pin a floating video window anywhere on the screen on top of other windows, such as the web browser or an email, so you can watch videos while doing something else. With Smart Stay, the S3 tracks your eye movements and keeps the screen bright when you're reading or watching, and then dims it before turning it off when you look away. Heard of Smart Alert? This is a feature that makes the phone vibrate whenever you've missed a call, text or email, so you'll know straight away when something's waiting for you. All cool features, all something iPhone 5 can't currently replicate.

Then there's the hardware. While iPhone 5 is unquestionably the better looking phone and more portable and pocketable, the Samsung Galaxy S3 fits in more with what people appear to want. The larger screen of the Samsung Galaxy S3 (4.8" to iPhone 5's 4", with iPhone 4S sporting a 3.5" display), the S3 is the better phone for YouTube™, reading and games - a bigger screen right now is more popular, which is why Apple made its iPhone's screen slightly bigger, too. The S3 has a larger battery, and while the battery life of iPhone 5 is similar, the S3 fared much better than the old iPhone 4S. The Galaxy S3 also has inside a special quad core processor. Without getting too technical, it was a headliner at launch and was more powerful than anything else. iPhone 5 has a dual core chip that's just as quick, but because it was released later, people expected more.

With the time advantage, superior feature list and some attractive hardware features, the Samsung Galaxy S3 was almost an easy pick for CNET. If you want to get in on the action, the S3 is available free at Carphone Warehouse from £26 per month.

Notes to Editors

• Carphone Warehouse is the largest independent mobile phone retailer in the UK, with over 800 stores nationwide

• Discover how to get more from your gadgets with eye openers from Carphone Warehouse. Eye openers is a YouTube channel which features videos of Carphone Warehouse team members sharing useful hints and tips on everything from laptops to Sat Navs to the latest mobile phones. With new videos being added each month, users can search through hundreds of videos at http://www.youtube.com/user/eyeopeners.

About Carphone Warehouse and Geek Squad

In 2006 Best Buy established a partnership with Carphone Warehouse to bring its business model and mobile phone expertise to the US market under the banner 'Best Buy Mobile'. Two years later, Best Buy acquired 50% of The Carphone Warehouse's European and US retail interests for £1.1billion, creating Best Buy Europe. The joint venture now encompasses the following retail and technical support brands: Carphone Warehouse, The Phone House and Geek Squad.

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